Although WhatsApp and BBM rule the roost for messenger apps these days, Telegram comes in right behind them in terms of features and even security due to the onboard encryption. The group behind Telegram held a contest to see who could make the best Telegram app for Windows Phone, and back in May Ngram won the honors.

Today, version 0.1.3.4 is live in the Store, and this is more than just standard performance improvements, as new features and some refined ones are included.

Telegram Messenger beta (v0.1.3.4)

Voice messages (listen and send)

Photos Hub integration

New toast notifications

Secondary tiles on the Start screen

Bug fixes

Those are not trivial additions, as voice messages are a big deal these days, especially when you do not have time (or two hands) to type out a message, and the rest of the new features are certainly welcomed as well.

The biggest hurdle Telegram faces is getting your friends, family, and colleagues to use it. Assuming they already do, then make sure you grab today's update as Telegram for Windows Phone just became significantly better.

Maybe try to read-up on it before you say anything. Yes the founders are Russian, but they moved away from Russia after the issues wtih vKontakte part of which was the refusal to hand over contact information of people openly supporting Ukraine. The founders were seriously against the Russian government and it's control of the internet and did not want vKontakte to be used as propaganda machine. Telegram is based in Berlin.

Well that makes you a racist then. Judging someone solely based on where they come from is pathetic and stupid; especially since these guys actively opposed the Putin government risking everything including imprissonment, which is more than can be said for you (armchair warrior). If you are so strongly against Putin to the point where all Russians should be condemmned why don't you head over to Ukraine and do something instead of spewing racist gargabe on a tech site from the comfort and safety of your home.

I'm a Canadian of Russian and Ukranian descent, I guess according to you I should be boycotted as well.

This is not the first time you are trying to start this racist crap on this site either. You have serious issues.

Edit: i don't care who you are and where you are from. This concerns Russia and mister Poetin. You are not that important.

Now, the Russian leader, mister Poetin is doing the same. He tells our compangnies that they may not delever their goods to Russia solely because they are not Russians.
And mister Poeting don't even ask what our compagnies think of Russia or its great leader, he just tells them to stay out. He, also must be a Racist then?
And most of the forgein countries must be rasicts because they froze Russian money in their banks. Must be billions. No, go back to school and learn what boycot means.

You are an illiterate racist that is telling me to go back to school? Also if you are telling someone to go back to school and learn what boycott means and least know how to spell the word. There is no boycott, there are sanctions, I wouldn't expect someone like you to know the difference. Sanctions that are targeting the Russian government. What you are proposing is the targeting of Russians regardless of where they are, and their opinion on the said Russian government, which is racist.

I'm not going to tell you to go back to school, cause you wouldn't know knowledge and logic if it hit you in the face.

Gerard...you are ridiculous. You don't like the Russian leader so all Russian's are inherently bad to you? Um...OK, at least you put it out there so everyone knows what kind of person they are dealing with.

I don't care. The Russian leader does not give a shit about the people in the rest of the world either. So why should I care about the people of Telegram that are Russians? Now if the Russian leader stays in his own country with his army, maybe i will gladly download and support Telegram. Oké?

This is the kind of comment that up/down voting is made for. #1 It's not topical. #2 It's insulting to anyone who might be of Russian origin. #3 it's the rantings of a lunatic who given a voice could be dangerous.

So, you decide what the Russian people must feel like an insult? Are you an American? You decide for the rest of the world? And why is it off topic? If you would ask me, Microsoft should stop shipping anything to Russia. But, many American and European compagnies do allready. Thats called a boycot. Trying to stop mister Poetin.

Nice additions. Getting friends to move out of WhatsApp is a herculean task. Though I use this to stay connected with people at work. Suits it because of the ability to add around 100 members which is not possible in WhatsApp

I'm pretty sure the photos hub integration is referring to Windows Phone 7.8/8 devices. I have it installed on my Lumia 900 (My Zune Music/Video/Podcasts player. Hubs.... They made to much damn sense to actually keep this feature in WP 8.1 I guess) and it works exactly the same as on my 920 with 8.1, except for notifications not coming through sometimes. I guess WP7.8/8 users get a bonus feature, so to say, compared to us 8.1 users:-P

Totally agreed!!! I don't know why they chose ngram over migram. It is not even updated anymore and is still better than this updated version. Do you people have a problem when swiping pictures you have to swipe backwards to go to the next picture instead of swiping forward ?

Haha. Lol. No for real, Migram has this feature for over 6 month now. Very useful, this is what I use with my Android, IOS friends to chat. Otherwise, it is much faster than Migram, so once secret chat is available, I don't mind to switch. Plus Migram didn't have update since march, they are probably upset that they didn't win the "Telegram" name, despite having much larger feature set compared to Ngram

Couldn't find,one. I've used ICQ one in the past pretty similar to IM + Pro. But my friends have running group chat on Hangouts for quite sometime, and I can't find the way to join it from the phone (google chat api only doesn't support group hangout)